Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Among Frontline Health Care Personnel in a Multistate Hospital Network — 13 Academic Medical Centers, April–June 2020

Abstract

Local area community cumulative incidence (per 1,000 population) Health care personnel with positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (%) Abbreviation: COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019. * Calculated as the total number of reported community COVID-19 cases within a hospital-area county or counties between the beginning of the pandemic and 7 days after the first day of health care personnel enrollment at the hospital divided by population of the county or counties x 1,000.

Cross-sectional prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers in paediatric facilities in eight countries

“…Higher rates were found in those hospitals situated where there was a high local area community cumulative incidence of COVID-19. [ 5 ].…”

“…Apart from differences between countries or hospitals there are other factors that have been shown to influence rates of seropositivity which include gender,[ 5 ] ethnicity, [ 4 , 5 ] and category of hospital work (e.g. housekeepers higher than intensive care staff).…”

“…Studying seroprevalence in HCWs has been undertaken to help understand the transmission potential of the virus in the context of nosocomial exposure and also for insight into the true burden of underlying COVID-19 infection and has been shown in many setting to be significantly higher than in the relevant general population. [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] ] As relatively few children globally have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19,[ 8 ] staff working in paediatric facilities have been unlikely to face a significant risk of exposure from their patients. [ 9 ] Only two studies of seroprevalence in paediatric HCWs have been published to date.…”

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Seroprevalence Survey Among 17 971 Healthcare and Administrative Personnel at Hospitals, Prehospital Services, and Specialist Practitioners in the Central Denmark Region

“…However, we found much greater differences between hospitals and departments and used an antibody test with a higher sensitivity. In healthcare personnel in the United States, differences in seroprevalence between hospitals were even higher (0.8%–31.2%) with the lowest seroprevalence among personnel who reported always wearing a face covering [ 5 ].…”

COVID-19—Lessons Learned and Questions Remaining

“…One study of nearly 100 000 health care workers and more than 2 million nonhealth care workers found a 3.4-fold higher hazard ratio in health care workers after adjustment for testing rates [ 232 ]. However, although some health care workers have developed severe or fatal COVID-19 [ 233 ], several studies suggest that they are more likely to experience mild or subclinical illness [ 234 ], possibly due to the protective effects of personal protective equipment and universal masking in the hospital setting, which can reduce the concentration of viral inoculum reaching mucosal surfaces [ 235 ]. Although the infective dose in humans is not known, inoculum is a determinant of disease severity in COVID-19 animal models [ 236 ].…”